The Hickory Shack Simons Town — Restaurant in Western Cape

We arrived in Simonstown on the inaugural Ceres Rail, and decided to visit the Hickory Shack as we’d seen it previously and wanted to try it. We knew we were off to a shaky start when we asked 3 times for a menu, and had to ask twice to order drinks. We asked 2 different waiters for both, and both of them totally and utterly ignored us - after staring blankly at us when asking.

When we eventually did get our waiter’s attention, he started taking our order, and midway to my husband placing his order, the waiter walks away and goes to deliver other customers their food, followed by getting another table’s drinks.

We were dumbfounded as we were literally in the middle of placing our order. Our waiter acted like he was high on weed, totally spaced out, eyes rolling around and completely unfocused. We brought this to the managers attention, who was quite blasé about the whole thing and didn’t do anything to rectify it.

Surprisingly, the food that arrived was correct and quite nice, we NEARLY left before we had even ordered due to the horrendous lack of service.

So just a word to management, you don’t know how many people had the same experience and left without saying anything. Your staff are useless, and likely costing you customers, or at least,...

Was the first time back in Simon's Town in many years and spotted the Hickory Shack with my wife and Mom, so we decided to give it a try. Wow !! Are we glad we have it a try !! We had a lovely view looking out with the right music playing at a good volume in the background alla modern country. The smell of the smoke house was intoxicating. We were served by our waitron, Tanashe, which was very friendly and quickly let us know what the house specialities were. They also offer homecrafted beer of which we tried the six sample beers which altogether came to adding up to a pint. Needless to say the beers proved a fantastic discussion point as we tried to identify flavors like Honey, passion fruit and even caramel. We decided to try a portion of each meal which was the Brisket, the Pork ribs and the pulled pork. Each dish comes accompanied by a slaw which is delicious I might add and homecut rustic fries which really added to the experience. We all tried a bit of each other's meals and could not decide on who's was best as they were equally good. The meals come with two homemade condiments on the table, a hickory sauce and a smoked chilli sauce that is done in the smoker as is to die for. All in All an amazing experience and not one you will not...

With such mixed Google reviews, we were not sure what to expect, but decided what the heck and gave it a go anyway. We had the beer tasting board which was a great way for us to sample all the beers before deciding and we had the food platter as well, so we could taste all their meats. The brisket was so crazy tender and full of flavour- they cook it for over 4 hours - the smokey flavour and texture was tops. Next were the ribs, meat easily pulled off the bone and the flavour sublime. The chicken wings were cooked perfectly tender but with a super crispy skin and lastly the Texan link sausages; also fantastic and not like any sausage you normally get. Served with a homemade crispy slaw (no rich mayo ‘gloop’ to ruin the flavour of the meat) and skin on fries- salty and crispy. Honestly the best meat platter we have had in ages, all Smokey, all with their own flavours. We also enjoyed the beers and relaxed service. I always judge a place by asking myself, would I go back. The answer is definitely...